In a bid to end the controversy surrounding the "credit" of authoring the movie, "3 Idiots", Chetan Bhagat, the author of 'Five Point Someone' has come up with a solution. Bhagat's offer came a day after "3 Idiots" Director Raj Kumar Hirani threatened him with a legal action.
In his latest blog titled 'Moving to a solution' Chetan Bhagat wanted to end all controversies and hoped that his solution would be acceptable to all. Here are the solutions given by Bhgagat:
1. When you are saying ‘based on a novel by’ in a movie, you cannot have a separate original Story credit in the film – not to mention the latter upfront and the former at the end. 3 Idiots has a big front Story credit for Mr Hirani and Mr Joshi. This is just not possible as they are themselves saying the story is based on a novel. The Screenplay, definitely so, belongs to Mr Hirani and Mr. Joshi.
2. While they did fulfill the 'based on the novel by' credit as per contract, by claiming the story as original and claiming it as theirs alone, they have definitely negated and denied my duecredit . Especially since the film has many commonalities with the book. They've adapted my story, not created a new one. That they'd claim the original story to someone else was never told to me, is not mentioned in the contract and is frankly just not possible under the basic 'moral rights of the author' under copyright law.
3. To the extent they have done this, all I merely ask is put my name as one of the writers in the 'Story' credit. They can keep their names above me, and make me the third writer of the story. The screenplay is theirs anyway.
Let's see how Director Raj Kumar Hirani and Producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra respond to Chetan Bhagat's offer. If it is accepted, it will be a great relief for Aamir Khan, who obviously did not want any controversy with his movie.
Posted by Shiva Kumar | Views 291 | Share Blog
